Study of structure and phase composition of nanocrystal silicon carbonitride films

The novel ternary silicon carbonitride films were synthesised by RPECVD using hexamethyldisilazane Si2NH(CH3)6 as a volatile single-source precursor. Different analysis techniques such as IR, Raman spectroscopy, ellipsometry, XPS, SEM, HRTEM, and SAED were used to study their physical and chemical properties. Maximum attention has been concentrated on the application of synchrotron radiation in structure and phase investigation of thin films. On the basis of data of SEM, HRTEM and diffraction of synchrotron radiation, it was established that silicon carbonitride films represent a distribution of nanocrystals (20–90 Å) in an amorphous matrix. The nanocrystalline component is a pseudo α-Si3N4 phase faceted by high-index planes. This phase can contain carbon atoms which have insufficient influence on the modification of the α-Si3N4 lattice parameters due to the similar atomic radius of carbon and silicon.